Old Goa: The Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant convened a meeting of Archeological Survey of India (ASI), state officials and the Church representatives on Tuesday to discuss on the issues concerning monuments of Old Goa. Others present for this meeting included Chief Secretary Parimal Rai, Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar, PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar, and St Andre MLA Francis Silveira, Rector of the Bom Jesus Basilica Fr Patricio Fernandes along with the members of the Administrative Committee of the Basilica, the ASI Superintending Archaeologist K Amarnath Ramakrishna and ASI Officials and other state Officials.
The Chief Minister proposed to form a committee consisting of representatives of the ASI, state officials and a representative of the Archdiocese of Goa to expedite not only the urgent matters concerning the conservation, protection and restoration of the Basilica and the cluster of Church monuments at Old Goa, because of their heritage, touristic, and religious significance, but also to help ASI resolve their matters and deliberate on how the state can reach out from their concern and perspective.
The Chief Minister had in his earlier meeting at the Basilica understood that this impasse between the Church, ASI and the state would never be resolved if the problem was not addressed at another level. The ASI was asked to furnish details of how a similar committee functions in Hampi-Karnataka and together with the Church and state officials arrive at a unique way of how this committee could function in Goa. The Chief Minister asked the Chief Secretary to study and immediately notify the committee. The meeting of the new committee will be convened within a period of two months to sort out the issues and plan and implement the works at Old Goa.
Chief Secretary Parimal Rai also realised the difficulties in the administrative processes in the bureaucracy and encouraged the Church and the ASI to call on him on any issue pertaining to the conservation of monuments in the state and assured to connect with higher-ups in New Delhi and resolve the problems, instead of struggling with them and arriving at no solutions. He immediately called the officers in Delhi and asked them to expedite the proposals pending at their offices.
Some of the issues discussed at the meeting included insufficient funds for ASI to carry on work on 21 monuments, the urgent projects delayed for approval at the Delhi office for months, the need for experienced engineers at the Goa office, the need for a chemical branch at ASI Goa, the anti-termite treatment and fumigation as the next priority at the Basilica, the cleaning of tiles before re-fixing them on rafters, the water seepage above the mausoleum containing the relics of St Francis Xavier and the expectation of the public that a professional job of conservation be done on some aspects of the Basilica.
The master plan for Old Goa and implementation of the prohibited and regulated zones were also deliberated at the meeting.
Deputy Chief Minister and TCP Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar also informed that the works of the two protected monuments in Old Goa which come under the Archaeological Survey of Goa, namely St. Francis Xavier Chapel and Our Lady of the Mont will begin soon. The PWD minister, Mr Deepak Pauskar also assured to undertake the works of water treatment plant and other pending works for the pilgrims at the Basilica.
The 45-minute meeting ended with the chief minister sharing his thoughts on the formation of the steering committee and on how the ASI, State and Church can collaboratively work to conserve, restore and protect the cluster of heritage monuments at Old Goa.